Image coding and decoding apparatus and methods thereof

1. An image encoding apparatus wherein input image data is divided into a representative frame representative of said image data and a second frame other than said representative frame, the representative frame being stored in a first memory and the second frame being stored in a second memory comprising said representative frame including a panoramic image larger than said second frame, a first encoder for obtaining a first residual frame between said representative frame stored in said first memory and said input image data, a second encoder for obtaining a second residual frame between said second frame stored in said second memory and said input image data, frame identifying information for identifying the representative frame and the second frame, respectively, appended to said first residual frame and said second residual frame, block identifying information for identifying a block in said representative frame, appended to said second residual frame, and bit streams of said first residual frame, said second residual frame, said frame identifying information and said block identifying information multiplexed together for transmission.

2. An image encoding apparatus comprising: an offset map in which at least two offset values for a quantization step size are concurrently set for at least two areas of an image, the two areas of the image requiring quantization at different levels of precision, said offset values being used to change the quantization step size for each block when quantizing the two areas of the image to effect the different levels of precision for quantizing the two areas of the image for transmission in said image encoding apparatus; and offset appending means for appending data of said offset map at the head of data of said image.

3. An image decoding apparatus comprising: offset extraction means for extracting said offset map from encoded data input from said image encoding apparatus of claim 2; and decoding means for changing the quantization step in each image based on the extracted offset value, and for inverse-quantizing said input encoded data with said changed quantization step size and thereby decoding said encoded data.

4. An image encoding method comprising the steps of: (a) dividing input image data into a representative frame and a second frame, the representative frame including a panoramic image larger than the second frame, (b) concurrently storing the representative frame in a first memory and the second frame in a second memory, (c) obtaining a first residual frame between the input image data and the representative frame, (d) obtaining a second residual frame between the input image data and the second frame, (e) encoding the first residual frame and the second residual frame with separate encoders, (f) appending data including a first identifier to the first residual frame, and (g) appending data including a second identifier to the second residual frame, (h) appending data to the second residual frame for indicating a block in the representative frame to be referenced by the second residual frame, (i) combining the encoded first residual frame, the encoded second residual frame and the appended data in a multiplexer and (j) transmitting the combined frames and the appended data.